Tuesday, March 24, 2015

It's nice to see that us Americans are finally normalizing our relationship with our neighbors to the South in Cuba.

This, of course, is a big deal. Because not long ago America was doing everything in her powers to keep other popular destinations in the region from going the way that Cuba did under Fidel Castro.

Being Jamaican I have somewhat of a vested interest in this subject.

"With the recent violence in Jamaica and the controversy over alleged drug lord, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, many people are talking about the infamous Jamaican Shower Posse and the neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens, where they have their base. What is being ignored largely by the media, is the role that the American government and the CIA had in training, arming and giving power to the Shower Posse.

It is interesting that the USA is indicting Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the current leader of the Shower Posse for drug and gun trafficking, given that the CIA was accused of smuggling guns into Jamaica and facilitating the cocaine trade from Jamaica to America in the 70s and 80s. In many ways Dudus was only carrying on a tradition of political corruption, drug running, guns and violence that was started with the help of the CIA.

Christopher “Dudus” Coke’s father was was Lester Coke, also known as Jim Brown, one of the founders of the Shower Posse and a fellow champion and protector of the impoverished Tivoli Gardens neighborhood in Kingston. Coke was a political enforcer and bodyguard to Edward Seaga, the leader of the Jamaican Labour Party.

Seaga’s opponent Michael Manley had begun to adopt “socialist” stances and began openly criticizing American foreign policies and meeting with U.S. enemy, Fidel Castro, in the 1970s. Given the Cold War the US was having with Russia, the CIA did not want Jamaica to be friendly with communists.

According to Gary Webb’s book,”The Dark Alliance,” Norman Descoteaux, the CIA station chief in Jamaica began a destabilization program of the Manley government in late 70s. Part of that plan was assassinations, money for the Jamaican Labour Party, labor unrest, bribery and shipping weapons to Manley’s opponents, like Lester “Jim Brown” Coke.

Author, Daurius Figueira writes in his book, “Cocaine And Heroin Trafficking In The Caribbean,” “In fact, it meant that illicit drug runners linked to the JLP were integrated into a CIA linked illicit drugs guns and criminal trafficking pipeline.”

Former CIA agent, Philip Agee, said “the CIA was using the JLP as its instrument in the campaign against the Michael Manley government, I’d say most of the violence was coming from the JLP, and behind them was the CIA in terms of getting weapons in and getting money in.”

One of Lester Coke’s associates, Cecil Connor, would claim that he was trained by the CIA to fight political wars for the JLP through killing and spying. Connor would stuff ballot boxes and intimidate voters to help the JLP win elections. Connor would go on from being a political thug to being part of the international Jamaican based cocaine ring known as the Shower Posse. He wound up testifying against Lester Coke and his cohort Vivian Blake, only to return to his native St. Kitts to become a drug kingpin who almost held the country hostage.

Christopher “Dudus” Coke’s father, Lester Coke has also been accused of working with the CIA. Timothy White speculates, in his biography of Bob Marley, “Catch A Fire,” that Jim Brown was part of a team of armed gunman that attempted to assassinate Bob Marley led by JLP enforcer Carl “Byah” Mitchell. Authors Laurie Gunst and Vivien Goldman also make the same assertions in their books, “Born Fi Dead” and “The Book Of Exodus.” Marley’s manager Don Taylor claims that one of Marley’s attackers was captured and admitted that the CIA had agreed to pay him in cocaine and guns to kill Marley.

Lester Coke would later be burned to death in a Jamaican jail cell, while awaiting extradition to the United States. Many people have claimed that he was killed so he wouldn’t reveal his secrets dealing with the CIA, JLP and criminal activity.

In its efforts to destabilize the Jamaican government in the 1970s, the CIA created a group of drug dealing, gun running, political criminals. Through the cocaine trade, these criminals would eventually become more powerful than the politicians they were connected to. The CIA destabilization program did not only destabilize Jamaica in the 70s, but it destabilized Jamaica for the next 40 years. Given the secrecy of both CIA and Jamaican society, it is unclear exactly what was the CIA’s role in creating the Shower Posse. Did they give them guns? Were they given cocaine? Were they trained how to smuggle drugs? Did the CIA use the Shower Posse to try and kill Bob Marley? These are all questions that the CIA should answer.

If what is alleged about the CIA is true, then they are partially responsible for the cycle of gun trafficking, gun smuggling and violence that plagues Jamaica today. If the US can extradite the son of one of the CIA’s political enforcers for trafficking guns and cocaine, shouldn’t the CIA be investigated for training Jamaicans on how to conduct political warfare, arming them, giving them cocaine and helping them traffic it? Given the revelation that the CIA allowed Nicaraguan drug dealers to sell cocaine in the US to fund their revolution against their communist government, it is not that far fetched to believe that they would arm Jamaicans to with guns and give them cocaine to fight communists in Jamaica." [Source]

Hmmm, sounds a lot like another plan to use cocaine for something other than snorting.

31 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Gary Webb's reporting on the Contras and drug smuggling involved lots of poorly researched and exaggerated claims. He was substantially discredited by the rest of the U.S. press, and ultimately killed himself after his career went bust.

That is not to say that there was no truth to what he was saying. During the Cold War, the U.S. was indeed willing to let slide a lot of dirty behavior on the part of the various anti-leftist groups we supported. (Much as, more recently, our government was willing to turn a blind eye to heroin trafficking by warlords who opposed the Taliban/al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.)

But all I am saying is that you might want to be careful about taking Webb's research about Jamaica too seriously, given his history of playing fast and loose with the facts.

Thousands of Cubans have died in front of Castro's infamous firing squad. There was no discrimination, as far as the firing squad was concerned. Young and old, black and white, rich and poor were sent to 'el paredón' (the wall). Many of those who helped Castro gain power, like Comandantes Ernesto Sori Marin and William Morgan, an American, were among the thousands who were shot.

"Many of those who helped Castro gain power, like Comandantes Ernesto Sori Marin and William Morgan, an American, were among the thousands who were shot."

Marin and Morgan were shot because they turned on Castro after he took power when they discovered that he was a communist. How two individuals so close to Castro were not aware of this fact up to that point is a mystery, since his political views weren't all that secret.

Castro committed a lot of violence as part of his revolution, as with most revolutions, and his economic system hasn't been particularly great for the Cuban people. But what seems to be lacking here in the States is any awareness of the scummy, elitist regime that preceded Castro. Had the U.S. not supported Batista and similar greedy dirtbag Cuban leaders prior to Castro, who impoverished most of their own countrymen, there would probably never have been any communist takeover.

That stuff mysteriously always gets edited out of the history here, making it seem as though radicals like Castro came out of nowhere, and the Cuban exiles now in Florida were all hapless victims (in fact, some of them were actually fairly vile characters).

It's really too bad that people like the father of epic dickhead Ted Cruz didn't stick around long enough to wind up in front of a firing squad. Castro could have done America a big favor.

I am hatred's eyesI am the wine of bitternessI am the bread of emptinessI am a dead roseMy heart closes at dawnI am the house of misfortuneOrigin of pain and the end of all freedomOf peace and tranquility.I am the secretiveStalking my enemiesI overtake youthI make it my ownI make it wornWasted on a nightmareI am the mad man's elationAnd the tyrant's revelationAnd the oppressor's inspirationI am the suffering in the heart of a childWhose mother cannot be foundI appear to the weakI shun hopeI promise powerI am like the agesDestroying todayAnd building tomorrowI am a god who creates then ruinsI am sweeter than lifeI am more violent than a crashing cometNo wealth can entice meLoss does not discourage mePoverty does not harm meFor under my bootAll are equal

A woman is facing charges after police say she threw a Molotov cocktail athttp://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/police-woman-threw-molotov-cocktail-at-antiabortion-protesters-outside-planned-parenthood-24912.shtml#.VRLOhUJgqMk

No connection to the NRA, tea party or rethugs.

No need for non-stop teev coverage since it doesn't fit the dumbocrat agenda.

"A former University of Oklahoma student seen in a video leading a racist song at a fraternity outing apologized on Wednesday, saying he will carry the shame of his words for the rest of his life.

"I am sorry, deeply sorry," Levi Pettit said after a meeting with civil rights leaders and state Senator Anastasia Pittman, head of Oklahoma's Legislative Black Caucus.

"Although I don't deserve it, I want to ask for your forgiveness," he said.

Pettit said his words on the bus were disgusting, hateful and wrong.

"From this point forward I will be the leader that I should have been on that bus and stand up against racism in any form," he said."

----------------Kinky, and Josh, when are you two white boys going to apologize to Field, PC and the rest of FN Negroes? You are definitely guilty and Field, and PC deserves an apology and deserves "respect".

This reminds me of a grand ole story about a bridge. Once, in the city of Lower Ungston, there lived a humble cobbler by the name of Meebers. Meebers worked night and day making the finest shoes in the city. On Saturdays, though business had been poor, he would carry his shoes across the bridge so that he could offer them at the central market. One particular day, a would be patron, a young man not know to these parts, stopped to inspect his wares. The young man inquired if he might simply have a pair of shoes for free. Poor ole Meebers became indignant. Yet the young man persisted until Meebers gave in and let him take a pair of shoes. The young man chose the most expensive pair and then handed them to Meebers as a gift. Surprised, Meebers asked the meaning of this gesture. The young man said, “Sir, I noticed that while you are about the business of telling others they need better shoes, you have neglected to look at your own. This is why you have difficulty selling your shoes. Everyone can see that you do not practice as you preach.” Meebers looked at his own ragged shoes and then hung his head in shame. He went home and tied a rope to his ceiling fan. And, the was the end of Meebers.

I suppose that story isn’t really about a bridge but it has a bridge in it.

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